Watch how a Tesla Model S was stolen with just a tablet

In the wee small hours of Sunday morning, two masked criminals began to meddle with a Tesla Model S on a driveway in Essex, England.

British tech executive Antony Kennedy was about to have his Tesla Model S stolen. But only after the thieves struggled (for a while) to unplug it.

Watching Kennedy’s video of the theft, it appears that the two criminals used a “relay attack”, where a signal from a nearby key fob (in this case, out of range of the car inside Kennedy’s darkened house) is boosted to a location close to the car.

And because the Tesla Model S, as with other luxury cars, can automatically unlock itself just by sensing that someone in close proximity to it is carrying an authorised key fob, the car can be driven away in seconds.

Such “passive entry” systems may be awfully convenient and impress your non-Tesla owning friends, but if a thief manages to recreate your key fob’s signal and is able to enter and drive away with your vehicle, you may decide that they are perhaps a gimmick too far.

A Tesla, of course, comes with a GPS signal that could be tracked by police using the associated smartphone app to recover the vehicle. That’ll work - if the criminals do not manage to block the GPS signal, as they appear to have done in Kennedy’s case (who, by the way, says that Essex Police still haven’t phoned him back.)

It may be too late for Antony Kennedy and his Tesla Model S, but here are some tips for other owners:

Enable “PIN to drive”.

When you’re not planning to use your key fob, keep it inside a RFID-blocking sleeve or “Faraday pouch” to block unauthorised electromagnetic transmissions.

Don’t leave passive entry enabled

Kennedy tweeted troubled Tesla founder Elon Musk to moan that it was far too easy for criminals to disable remote access on stolen cars. Maybe a PIN or password would be a good idea?

@elonmusk My @tesla was stolen this morning, with just a tablet and a phone extending my fob range from the back of the house. I get that I should enabled PIN access. I wish it was harder for them to disable remote access though. I can’t track it or disable it. :(

About the author, Graham Cluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy.

5 Responses

Some info here. Seems to suggest that if it was just a relay/amplify attack, then the thieves wouldn’t be able to start the car once they were out of range. So the tablet must have somehow recorded the signal also. Interesting stuff.

Elon did respond > https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1054060263257792512 & Tesla unlike Jaguar/Land Rover forced/turned off passive entry remotely for all cars in the UK, they then added an optional ‘pin to drive’ system and emailed all owners explaining the risks.